Little Baby Pines

The first shove rocked Patrick side to side. The second one sent him to the ground in confusion. Patrick shouted a remark then looked behind him. Jon was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. Two blooms of red were spreading on his cheeks. He looked like Pikachu in attack mode.

“Hey man. I thought about calling you the other day. You were nowhere to be found. Bur and I thought you were abducted and sold as a Mexican sex slave. We would have looked better for you but I had to take him to the airport so that he could get back to Dallas.”

“You thought about calling me?! You—” Jon picked up his duffle bag only to throw it in the undercarriage of the private plane. “You fucking asshole! I was somewhere where I knew no one and you, you,” Jon hushed his voice and kneeled next to Patrick to hoarsely whisper, “drugged me.” Luckily, most of their teammates were inside the plane and prepping themselves for the flight to L.A. There was only one person near them and that was Brent Seabrook. But Brent was out of it. His headphones were blasting Metallica as he wobbled from side to side, trying to wake himself up at 5 AM in the morning. Jon watched him in his peripherals stagger up the stairs of the plane.

Jon waited until Brent safely made his way into the plane to sit down next to Patrick on the gravel. “What the fuck were you thinking, Patty? You left me by myself with drinks that had strange pills in them. That was a dick move.”

“To be fair, those drinks weren’t for you. They were for Park and Broken Nose. So really, if you didn’t drink other people’s drinks then you would have been fine.”

A disgusted look was Jon’s face. He wanted to shove Patrick again but decided against it only because he didn’t know if he would stop. He would have kept shoving Patrick until his mouth was full of gravel. “That is fucked up, too. Where did those drugs even come from? Why would you drug up two nice girls? Kim is a nice girl.”

“Nice. Ha, okay.” Patrick chuckled. “I did it because the girl needs to let her hair down. You know that I have known her for two years and I have never seen her take a pill? That is weird, right?” Patrick zipped up his hoodie. “She goes to all these parties with a shit ton of drugs and I have never seen her high. That has to be weird, right? Anyway,” A wide open grin was on his face, “did you tap that? I saw you hanging around her when she was spinning records. I always thought about trying to get with her, but she was always too busy hanging around that rapper guy.” Patrick’s eyes widened. “That guy can rap! Oh my God, did you listen to him the other night? That guy has sick flow. He is starting to get some recognition, apparently. It is crazy cool.”

Jon firmly gripped Patrick’s shoulder. “Kaner, do you ever shut the fuck up?”

“No. Never. So tell me if you fucked her. Did you? How was she? I bet she was awesome in the sack. She looks like she would be because she is small, feisty, and can go for hours.”

“Patrick. Shut the fuck up. Stop talking about her like that. You are such a pig.” Before Jon stood up to leave he shoved Patrick again, sending him back to the ground. “Don’t talk about her like she is some slut, okay Kaner? Just—just knock it off.” He hopped up the plane steps, two at a time.

“Jonny boy, don’t pretend like you know her. She is a lot more complicated than you think. The girl is a handful.” Patrick pulled the hood snuggly over his head. “She has skeletons in her closet,” he mumbled to himself while getting on his feet.

Most of the guys were already dozing off in their reclined seats. Patrick Sharp was sitting in two-seat row by himself. His head was turned to the window. He drew circles on the window. “Hey Sharpie, feeling good?” Jon took the empty seat next to Sharp.

The circles turned into a straight line, trailing down until his hand fell onto his lap. “I feel like shit. I feel like curling under a fort of blankets with a box of pizza and my wife.” His heavy head turned in Jon’s direction. “So I heard you had a wild time with Kaner and Bur. How was Burish? I hope he didn’t sick from our pig out earlier at the pizzeria.”

“He didn’t get sick. He was a dick, though. He and Kaner ditched me at that party. Those douches suck.”

Sharpie heartily laughed, clapping Tazer on the back. “That is what happens when you party with them. You should know that by now. But honestly, how many times have you went out with those two and ended up with a bad time?” Every single time. Of all the times Jon hung out with Kane and Adam he always ended up wanting to shoot his face off with a sawed off shotgun. What he did end up with was an interesting story to tell the next day. This time, sure, he was drugged with Ecstasy but he also made out with cute and interesting girl. A girl who he had no idea how to contact. He didn’t get her number and couldn’t really remember where she lived. In a house full of girls. Sorority girls? Jon didn’t want to ask Kaner how to get a hold of her. He didn’t want third party meddling especially since all it would result in was unwanted teasing and torment. Was Patrick’s comment about Kim being a handful supposed to ward Jon away from her?

“Oh yeah, okay, you got me there, Sharpie.”

Jon’s incredulous tone was waved away by Sharp. “Of course I do. I am the Yoda in your life, Jon. Everything I say makes complete sense in an ass backwards way. Trust me, you must,” and with that Sharpie put his headphones over his ears and let the sound of Dave Matthews Band carry him to sleep.

Jon looked down the aisle. Kaner finally stumbled in. He fell into the open seat next to Niklas Hjarlmarsson. Niklas was curled up into a ball, his back to Kane. Some words were spouted out of Kane’s mouth, but they were both inaudible and riddled with slurs. From the back of the plane their coach rose from his seat to walk over to the pilot. The plane’s jet roared even louder and they started moving. Jon clenched the armrests as the plane rocked violently and then jumped into the air. He took in deep breaths to calm himself down. Then he started to think of Kim and her soft hair. His breathing deepened. The idea of her soothed him. His eyelids were heavy and then he was asleep.